Balljoints.......

woo · Post by **woo** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 8:50 am

How do you know when a ball joint is about to go? My leganza has started to sag an is handling like a barge. My brother said the same thing happened when a ball joint went in his ute but i'm still not sure.

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:02 pm

Take a look under your car to see if you notice anything sitting differently when comparing the suspension components on each side.

Try to pinpoint where you see the most sag or the biggest change from one side to the other.

That can help determine what the problem is.

Just wondering, have you recently hit anything like a large hole while driving? With something like that, there is always a silm chance that something in the syspension has been bent. It is not likely, but it is a possibility.

If you still do not see anything wrong, try to find a reputible mechanic who will not charge too much to find what the problem is.

If you need parts, you can get new ones from your local dealer (which they may need to order the parts) or you can order them from www.gm-car-parts.com where I, and several others on this forum have ordered parts at a better price than our local dealer. They are usually very fast with shipping, too.

Good luck with it!!

Cliff

woo · Post by **woo** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 1:51 am

my arms are straight, i might get a $14 suspension check. Problem being that regardless of what they find, being 17, at school with no job i can't afford to get it fixed. On the plus side my mum said i can use her car, and whats more suspicious then an untidy white teen driving a jaguar?

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Sun Sep 19, 2004 3:07 am

woo wrote:whats more suspicious then an untidy white teen driving a jaguar?

What'cha sellin'? :twisted:

LOL

Cliff

woo · Post by **woo** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 3:13 am

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote: What'cha sellin'? :twisted:

LOL

Cliff

if the police look at me sideways when i drive my 98 leganza, i might have to stop wearing a beanie......

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Sun Sep 19, 2004 3:31 am

Look at you sideways?

LOL

You should have seen the looks I got when I used to ride around in my Suzuki X-90 with the tops off while wearing a Viking battle helmet with horns! LMAO It was great...

:twisted:

LOL

Cliff

GsiTurbo · Post by **GsiTurbo** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 4:06 am

Its actually easy to check, if your ball-joint is weak:

- lift the car up
- grap the wheel at the top and the bottom and try to move it back and forth, it should not move
- grab the strut and try to move it towards and away from you (this will check the upper strut mount)
- trying to move the wheel sideways will tell you the condition of your tie-rod end

Finally, with the vehicle on the ground, push hard down on the fender to make the suspension compress. Upon release, the vehicle should come to stop after no more than 1 second...if more, your struts are weak.

Hope this helps.

richardmatalon · Post by **richardmatalon** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:21 am

I thought that if you had the car up and you tried to move the wheel in and out by grabing the top and the bottom of the wheel that would tell you if your wheel bearings were bad.

GsiTurbo · Post by **GsiTurbo** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:43 am

richardmatalon wrote:I thought that if you had the car up and you tried to move the wheel in and out by grabing the top and the bottom of the wheel that would tell you if your wheel bearings were bad.

Well...this too. Excellent, yet very often overlooked point to bring up.

There is, however, another way to check for faulty bearing. They would normally make noise when turning left and right, as the load factor and the force vector changes.

woo · Post by **woo** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:55 am

what do you reckon it will cost to get a new set of centre caps for my stock alloys?

note- the pic was taken before and problems occured so it looks normal.